The objective of the thesis is to analyze and understand the role of Business Angels within the Italian entrepreneurial ecosystem: we investigated their characteristics and investment patterns, how and to what extent they measure financial and impact risk, what type of post-investment services do they offer, and how the answer to those questions change in the case of impact investing. We investigated the phenomenon in Italy. To do so, we had to thoroughly map the population of Business Angels in Italy, building a database with demographic, educational attainment, and employment information of Italian informal investors. Then, through our surveys, we collected enough responses to get a representative sample, thanks also to the partnership with some of the most important Italian Angel Groups.